Photo: Robbie Honerkamp · CC BY-SA 3.0How Fort Gaines works: jobs, income and commuting
A typical one-way commute lasts 21 minutes, where Georgia has 28 and the U.S. 26. 3% of workers work from home, where Georgia as a whole has 16%. About one in ten stay in Fort Gaines for work; outside it, Cuthbert is the main destination (7%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Fort Gaines
A big share show a job far from home
37% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Fort Gaines than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Fort Gaines fell from 437 in 2014 to 280 in 2024, −36%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Fort Gaines are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 28 across Georgia. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Georgia worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 352 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Fort Gaines
About 37% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Fort Gaines, 28% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
280 jobs are based in Fort Gaines.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fort Gaines, 2014 → 2024: 437 → 280. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Fort Gaines’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Fort Gaines: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fort Gaines workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 479 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Georgia: 84% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Fort Gaines on a workday afternoon
On a workday 315 residents head out to work, 37 work right here, and 243 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.80 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Where the trip to work from Fort Gaines ends
Where Fort Gaines clocks in
7% of workers
6% of workers
6% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Fort Gaines: questions
What is the median household income in Fort Gaines?
$38,071 (±$12,074) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fort Gaines?
31.7%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fort Gaines?
21 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fort Gaines work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Cuthbert (7%, 18 mi), Eufaula (6%, 21 mi), Albany (6%, 52 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Can you get around Fort Gaines without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 22% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fort Gaines, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fort Gaines
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer.